"yeah"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Sorry, Wilson. It was Mark's note that "yea" / je / is used in the U.S. Congress that I didn't get.

  Maybe it's worth restating that one OE syn. of "yes" was / jE /.  This has survived as / je / in parliamentary language and archaic biblical language. One would expect that modern {yeah}, {yeh}, and {yea} (all pronounced much as in OE and in use throughout the anglophone world) is likewise a direct survival of the same OE word. OED, however, does not show any modern exx. (other than the formal/frozen kind) until 1905. (_Yeah_: 1905 U.S.; _yeh_: 1920: U.K.).

  So what's the history of colloquial "yeah"?

  JL


Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: "yeah"
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My post should have read:

> "Nay(, Jim)" WAS USED in place of "no" or "naw" in the Saint Louis of my youth, but I
> doubt that the history of its use is any more interesting than the
> history of "it matters not," always used in place of "it doesn't
> matter" or "I don't care." My WAG is that both usages stem from movies
> and stories about the days of knights.

-Wilson


On 10/17/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: "yeah"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Err...
>
> I don't get it.
>
> JL
>
> Mark Mandel wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Mark Mandel
> Subject: Re: "yeah"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Parliamentary procedure. OED under "yea, adv. (n.)":
> 2. An affirmative vote; a person who votes in the affirmative: usually
> pl., opposed to nays (or noes).
> Still in use in the U.S. Congress. Cf. AYE.
>
> m a m
>
> On 10/17/07, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >
> > Isn't "nay" a borrowing from the Danish dialect of Old Norse? "Nay(,
> > Jim)" in place of "no" or "naw" in the Saint Louis of my youth, but I
> > doubt that the history of its use is any more interesting than the
> > history of "it matters not," always used in place of "it doesn't
> > matter" or "I don't care." My WAG is that both usages stem from movies
> > and stories about the days of knights.
> >
>
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